This winter I had a good list of things I wanted to do to improve the boat autonomy this summer.

#1 glue together my take apart scarf 12′ oars. By planing down the scarf a little, I was able to shorten the oars to 11’6″ (350cm).

#2 make a second set of 295cm oars that fit between the bulkheads on the floor. These I am making out of reclaimed windsurfing masts. The blades are vacuum bagged carbon and fibreglass over XTPS foam that I shaped into a simple oar blade.

The vacuum bag is a standard large bag used for storing woollens out of reach from mites. It works great as a ready-made vacuum bag for epoxy work. The only thing I learned after the fact was that it is worth adding an absorbent layer between the peel-ply and the bag. This will help pull more epoxy out of the layup, help with avoiding the wrinkles caused by the plastic.